Objection: God Can Lead Others to Salvation Through the Pain and Death of a Saint
This statement is true. It is also true that God can lead even more to salvation through the removal of pain and the healing of a saint!
The peace experienced by a sick Christian can lead others to the Savior. Let’s face it; even a sick Christian has reason to have joy unspeakable and full of glory that a well unbeliever cannot have. I know of one case where someone was saved watching the behavior of a sick Christian. Tragically, the illness involved was terminal, and the victim thought it was worth all his suffering to lead one person to the Lord. But how many MORE could have been led to the Lord by the healing of that terminal illness?
The objector and I part ways over the issue of it being the will of God for Him to lead others to Himself in this way. It isn’t. There is no Bible basis for believing that. You cannot read any cases where people were won to God in the New Testament by the “pain and death” of a saint. None. There weren’t any. The cities won to Christ were won because of the healing of the sick, not the serene suffering of the sick! There was great joy in Samaria when the sick were healed, and the people gave heed to Philip when they saw the miracles that he did (Acts 8:5-8). All those who were in Lydda and Saron turned to the Lord when a crippled man was healed (Acts 9:32-35), not when he perished peacefully in pain. Many in Joppa believed in the Lord because someone was raised from the dead (Acts 9:36-42), not because someone died with supernatural joy and peace. All the sick people on an entire island came and were healed when one man was healed (Acts 28:8-9). The Pharisees were not concerned about Lazarus’s death, but they got very concerned when his undeath led to many people following Jesus (John 12:10-11).
The gospel pattern for advertising salvation is through healings and miracles, not the patient suffering of sickness or the “peaceful” resigned acceptance of death. Healings and miracles were the advertising God used in the Bible. It is a man-made fiction that God wants to use something inferior today.
Do you think people would cause traffic jams rushing to your city to see a man patiently endure terminal illness? Do you think the community would stand up and take notice because someone died with the peace of God? Some people might be affected, but you won’t see Bible-scale revivals resulting from patiently enduring sickness. You will not attract hordes of sick people who ask you to pray so that they can resign themselves to sickness as you did. Revivals in the Bible were fueled by healing miracles, not by resignation to the works of the devil.
One person mentioned his willingness to be a witness of God’s grace “if God blessed him with a terminal illness.” (No kidding. He really said that.) I asked him if he wanted me to agree with him in prayer that he would get terminally ill and die. (No kidding. I really said that.) He did not seem interested. Gee, why would he want to turn away anything that is really a blessing from God? Deep down he knew what is obvious to everyone – that sickness is a curse, not a blessing. However, an even bigger tragedy is that someone could believe this “terminal illness” lie and actually welcome and pursue terminal illness, opening the door wide to Satan to make it happen!
I am not saying that God cannot use the sick for his glory. God will use anyone He can for His glory. He would rather get some glory than no glory. However, you can never blame God for sickness or premature death by saying that it was for someone’s salvation. What really happened is that the devil got in and stole someone’s life through sickness and God happened to work something bad for good. God used the awful things that happened to Joseph for his good, too, but you cannot construct a theology from that saying that God wanted Joseph to be betrayed, framed and forgotten by his friends and family. Joseph’s testimony is an encouragement that God will never forsake you or revoke the dream He gave you even when it seems like the world keeps dealing you hands from a stacked deck. But the devil-inspired behavior of other people in Joseph’s life was NOT the work of God – God just worked around it to further His purposes.
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